The US military and NATO have been trying to deny any presence of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) terrorists in Afghanistan, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday. “We are alarmed as unfortunately, the US and NATO military in Afghanistan makes every effort to silence and deny [the IS presence],” he told reporters after talks with his Pakistani counterpart Khawaja Muhammad Asif. “We have very serious suspicions over the measures that the NATO coalition in Afghanistan is using to curb this threat,” TASS quoted the minister as saying. “According to our data, the IS presence in northern and eastern Afghanistan is rather serious, there are already thousands of gunmen,” Lavrov said, adding that this increases the risk of the terrorists’ penetration into Central Asia.